


powerful

by stardustgirl



Series: Full-length Fics [9]
Category: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: Rebels, Star Wars: Rise of Empire Era - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Clone Wars, Clones, Coruscant (Star Wars), Crimes & Criminals, Dark Ezra Bridger, Episode: s05e17 Sabotage, Episode: s05e18 The Jedi Who Knew Too Much, Episode: s05e19 To Catch A Jedi, Episode: s05e20 The Wrong Jedi, Ezra Bridger Needs a Hug, Human Disaster Anakin Skywalker, Inquisitor Backstory, Inquisitor Ezra Bridger, Jedi, Jedi Temple (Star Wars), Medium Angst, Old Republic Era, Order 66, Post-Episode: s05e20 The Wrong Jedi, Post-Order 66, Power Dynamics, Pre-Episode: S05E20 The Wrong Jedi, Prison, The Force
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-27
Updated: 2019-05-04
Packaged: 2019-12-25 09:46:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 12
Words: 1,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18258788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stardustgirl/pseuds/stardustgirl
Summary: Ezra steals from the wrong person.Written in journal entry-esque vignettes.





	1. Day Twelve

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place in the Old Republic, starting at the tail end of the Clone Wars.

He looks up at the sound from further down the hall, but no movement reveals itself beyond the ray shield.  Sighing, he drops his gaze again to his robes, picking absently at a thread. He scoffs quietly, letting the fabric fall and looking up at the ceiling instead, blinking.  The fact that they had bothered to even  _ give _ him robes before...before sending him here….

He supposes it was a gesture of kindness, or what they view as such.

In all honesty, he would view it as more of one if they had just left him on Lothal in the first place.


	2. Day Fifteen

He gets free food here.  Meals twice a day, which he thinks must be considered deprivation for most of the populace on Coruscant.  But for him, it’s a luxury.

As is having a roof over his head.

In all honesty, however, he’d rather be out there, taking his chances with the elements, than in here, only able to pace a small six by six meter cell and wonder how much longer they’ll allow him to live.


	3. Day Twenty-five

It’s always quiet.  Always  _ too _ quiet.

Despite the fact that Lothal’s a Republic planet, the prisons there were always half-full, always loud.  He’d seen the hands reaching out through the bars, begging for release, just as any other Lothali living within a mile of one of the major towns had.  He’d heard their yells, pleading for freedom. He just...had never imagined himself there.

_ This _ is a  _ real _ Republic prison, he tells himself. For criminals and those too powerful for their own good. The kind terrorists are sent to. The kind murderers are sent to.

The kind fugitives are sent to.


	4. Day Forty-six

He’s going insane.

This cell is the only thing he’s seen—beyond the clones, if they even count—for over a month now, if he’s counting his meals right.  He’s realized that the clones don’t leave him the food if he’s asleep when they come, so he tries to stay awake as long as possible.

It doesn’t work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I PROMISE THE CLONES COUNT BUT EZRAS NOT SURE BECAUSE HES NOT USED TO THEM IM SORRY


	5. Day Fifty

Even now, he can’t help but wonder if things would be different if he hadn’t run from the Jedi, if he hadn’t taken the tall one’s lightsaber while he stood talking with another one, closer to his own age, and bolted.

He had had a bad feeling about it, but he’d still done it.  At the very least, he could sell it on the black market, and at the most, the Jedi would try and barter for it back, and of course he _would_ give it back, but only for the right price.

Thinking back, he had been able to tell they were distracted, through whatever the Jedi had called that sixth sense of his (the Form, maybe?) when he’d mentioned it in the face of their accusations.  Maybe _that_ was the reason he had dared to try.

But, kriff, why had he ever thought he could _run_ from a Jedi?  He was doomed from the beginning.


	6. Day Fifty-One

He’s not sure, because he still can’t really  _ recognize _ the clones per se, but he thinks less of them are coming.

He manages to differentiate them only slightly by the scratches in their helmets—the one he’s dubbed Three has three small scratches near the visor, and Seven has a small “seven” etched in Aurebesh into the plating on his arm.

They used to rotate between who brought his food, but now it seems to just be Three and another one he hasn’t come up with a name for yet.

If it’s possible, the hall gets quieter.


	7. Day Sixty-three

A loud boom and a tremor rocked the cell yesterday.  Today, the clones bring down a haggard human woman. She glances into his cell as they pass.  He drops his gaze.


	8. Day Sixty-four

A girl comes down, a Togruta.  He remembers her; she was with the man he stole from.  As she passes with two clones, she lingers by his cell, mouth opening as if to say something.  He watches her with a wary gaze, wondering.

_ She _ was taken as a child, he can tell.  The way she walks, the way she holds herself—it all screams  _ Jedi _ to him.   _ She _ isn’t considered too powerful to leave alone.  The man he’d stolen from, that had been her master, hadn’t it?   _ She _ is everything that he could’ve been, had the Jedi found him sooner.  If the Jedi had bothered to check Lothal more than once every fifteen years.

A cloaked figure comes down later, slaughters the clones, and leaves without the slightest glance at him.

When the Togruta leaves, it's with blaring lights and alarms that have his ray shield going down.  He blinks, hesitating before bolting out.

He manages to slip by the clones outside.

He’s free.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Second chapter for today because I missed a couple weeks’ worth of updates and I’d like to end this on May 4th.


	9. Day Ninety

They find him again, on the lower levels, and he manages to throw three of the clones before he’s hit with a stun bolt.

This time, when he returns to the prison, he’s cuffed, placed into a smaller, darker cell, and injected with something that rid him of the small lights populating his mind.

He is alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *quickly posts two chapters so she can finish on May 4th*


	10. Day Ninety-nine

There’s a change.

He’s not sure how he knows it, he just knows that he  _ does. _

He knows it the way he knows that trying to steal from the Jedi was nearly a death sentence.

That it still might turn out to be.


	11. Day One Hundred

He can smell the smoke.

Screams and loud thuds echo around him.

He’s safe, in his small cell, and he hates it.


	12. Day One Hundred and Two

More screams, more smoke, more thuds.

And then he hears the clones.

They march into the hall his cell is located in, blaster rifles raised and visors expressionless.  He shifts, blinking into the darkness in a vain effort to see beyond the ray shield. He watches as their shadows stop, rifles raised.  One presses the button on the wall outside his cell that drops the ray shield.

He closes his eyes, breathing out slowly and trying to hide his shakiness.

The rifles are cocked.

There’s the screech of a comm.  He opens his eyes to see one of the clones reach down and shut it off before raising his blaster again.

“Ready.  Aim.”

“Kill the Jedi,” one of the clones mutters under his breath as if in a trance.

“Fire.”

A yellow lightsaber decapitates the lead clone, and he stares in numb horror at the helmet that clunks down the steps and into his cell.

Within moments, the other clones are dead, and the masked figure beckons for him to leave.  He stands. He obeys.

The figure leads him out of the prison, decimating clones at every turn.  The figure seems familiar, and then he realizes that he was one of the guards present at his sentencing.

He’s not even sure if his mysterious savior is a Jedi.

They manage to make it to the final hall before the exit and his rescuer speaks rapidly into a wrist comm, too quietly for him to hear.

They reach the exit and he halts in shock.

Ahead, the Temple is burning.

He looks up to the figure at his side, trembling slightly.  His hands are still cuffed, but he hasn’t spoken in so long he’s not sure he really remembers how.

There’s a  _ click _ that he more feels than hears, and suddenly the lights appear in his mind again, but there’s an absence of many now.  Only a few remain in the area—one of which is standing next to him.

“The Jedi were traitors.”

There’s still silence, just the sound of distant gunfire and screams.

“They hurt you.  And me.”

He doesn’t know how to respond, so he just shifts his arms, cuffs biting painfully into his skin in the heat surrounding them.

“But the Emperor has given us another chance.”

He blinks.  He’s never heard of an Emperor.

The figure turns its head to look down at him, mask covering his expression.

“Will you take it?”

He nods.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I guess that’s the end of that. Unless y’all want something else from me.


End file.
